This week, like most weeks, there were a number of patents that surfaced that aren't major inventions about new shiny digital devices and yet could be interesting to various groups of techies within the Apple community. Today's report highlights a few of those patents that were published this week covering finger devices for use with virtual and/or glass-top keyboards, 4 HMD patents and one that reinvents vehicle window wipers for EV vehicles.

Systems For Modifying Finger Sensations During Finger Press Input Events

On September 17, Meta won a patent for Finger devices & VR Glove to assist users work on a physical Keyboard while wearing a Quest VR Headset. Of course various Apple engineering teams have been exploring and patenting various possible applications for the use of rings or finger devices (01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07 and more).

A Finger patent published this week shows that Apple has been working on finger devices designed for "when a user is typing on a virtual keyboard," going back to 2017 or a minimum of 7 years prior to Meta's recent patent on this subject matter.

This week's patent from Apple further noted that "Virtual keyboards may be formed on touch sensitive displays by displaying key icons on the display and capturing respective touch sensor input. If desired, input surfaces such as virtual keyboards can be formed on other structures (e.g., table tops, vehicle dashboards, refrigerators, etc.). For example, finger press input may be gathered form an input surface onto which key icons have been projected using a projector and/or finger press input may be gathered from an input surface without any visible key icons. Configurations in which finger press input is gathered using two-dimensional touch sensors overlapping displays." A few of the patent figures below are from this week's patent.

Apple's patent FIG. 13 presented below shows how the housing of finger-mounted device #26A may wrap under the tip of finger (#10) while leaving fingernail (#18) exposed. The finger mounted devices could be individually worn or a gloves-accessory could be used with the finger-mounted devices built-in; Apple's patent FIG. 14 above is a diagram of a user's finger with an optional finger-mounted device and an associated electronic device in a system.

Apple's patent FIGS. 4, 5, and 6 below are diagrams showing how a finger may contact an input surface such as a touch sensitive input surface in an electronic device in a system; FIGS. 9, 10, and 11 are diagrams of illustrative examples of finger-mounted device styles or forms for a system.

Apple notes that too lessen fatigue and improve a user's experience when providing finger press input to a virtual keyboard, the forces imposed on a user's fingers as the user is providing input can be modified using components coupled to a user's finger and/or components in the electronic device. As an example, components in a finger-mounted device and/or in a device with a touch sensitive input surface may be used to help soften the impact between a user's finger and the input surface.

An unmodified finger impact event may be characterized by an abrupt force-versus-displacement profile (e.g., rapidly rising force on a user's finger when traveling a relatively short distance toward an input surface). By modifying these forces, a user may be provided with softer finger-to-input-surface interactions, with finger sensations that mimic the action of clicking on a physical button, and/or other finger sensations.

To review the full details of this patent including 20 new patent claims that protect their patent, check out patent application 20240319863. Apple's work on finger devices and rings is far ahead of Meta. Then again, Meta may want to bring this to market ahead of Apple to make them look like the innovator. Many Apple competitors have done just that on other devices.

New HMD Patent Application Published this Week

• 01: User Interactions and Eye Tracking with Text Embedded Elements
• 02: Electronic Devices with Stretchable Fabric Covers
• 03: Electronic Device With Reliable Passthrough Video Fallback Capability And Hierarchical Failure Detection Scheme
• 04: Devices, Methods, and Graphical User Interface for Capturing Media with a Camera Application

And lastly, another Project Titan patent came to light on Thursday. One of the likely reasons for Project Titan's failure was there obsession with reinventing everything related to future EV vehicles to a fault. This week, the U.S. Patent Office published a patent titled "Cleaning System," which is a new take on Window Wipers. Check out patent application 20240317181 for details. If Apple would have waited to have every single component for the iPhone reinvented, the iPhone would still be in their labs. Why Apple didn't try to bring some form of EV to market and evolve it over time remains a mystery beyond its leadership failures.

Posted by Jack Purcher on September 28, 2024 at 07:35 AM in 1A. Patent Applications | Permalink